Day 7-Our Glacier Adventure

We were up early again for our trip to the glacier. We had cars rented and one part of the trip required a ferry crossing. We had decided we wanted to be on the 8:10 ferry which meant we needed to leave around 7:45. We had a quick breakfast and then we were on our way.

We arrived in Dragsvik where we would take the ferry. It was a quick ferry ride across to Hella and the kids thought it was great fun to be on a car ferry! The drive to the glacier was spectacular, the scenery was beautiful, it seemed every little town we drove through was more beautiful than the last! The drive took about 2 1/2 hours. It went quickly because there was so much to look at along the way. There were multiple tunnels to drive through, the kids thought that was very cool because we really don't have tunnels near where we live.

We arrived at the glacier information center and signed up for our glacier walk. There are 4 family glacier walks a day, you can not sign up ahead of time. My parents were with us but they were not doing the glacier walk, they waited for us at the glacier information center and explored the museum there.

After buying the tickets for our glacier walk we drove on a two mile toll road to a parking lot that is near a lake at the foot of the glacier. It is a 45 minute walk from the parking lot to the edge of the ice. We could see the glacier clearly from the parking lot, it was so cool! We have seen glaciers before but this one was so blue. We decided to take a small boat across the lake to make our walk to the glacier a little shorter. It was 120 krone for the 4 of us and well worth it. The water in the lake was super cold and there were floating chunks of ice in it! After we got off the boat it was time to make the 25 minute trek to the edge of the ice. It was quite a hike, you are hiking on stone and there are lots of rocks to step and climb over. I'd only suggest this trek for people who are quite sure footed. I was so happy that my parents didn't attempt it! It was definitely a beautiful setting with the lake, the sounds from the waterfalls, and the imposing glacier ice!

View from the parking lot

Walking to the starting point

Fun bridge

We arrived at the meeting point for the family glacier hike. There were already a few other families waiting there. You are asked to meet the guides 30 minutes before the hike. We were the only people in the group wearing running shoes, everyone else had on hiking boots except for one couple from Italy who had on dress shoes. In retrospect hiking shoes would have been a good idea but we don't own any! The guides got us outfitted with crampons and we got roped in. As we waited it started to rain, it was raining and windy!

Connor in his crampons

Drinking glacier water

There were about 20 people in our group, mostly families with children. Children 6 and up are allowed on the hike. In my opinion your 6 year old would need to be pretty fearless or used to challenging hikes to manage the walk! After everyone was settled and roped in we started on the ice. It is hard to tell in the pictures but there were quite a few parts of the walk that were kind of steep. It is hard to explain but trust me when I say the hike was amazing, challenging, exhilarating, and scary! It was defintiely "the real deal" we signed a waiver at the beginning of the walk and part way through I was really understanding why! We've done other "adventure" travel things like zip lining but this definitely made those look like a cake walk. Ali shed a few tears and she wasn't the only kid to do so, the little girl a few people ahead of me on the rope was crying quite a bit. The younger kids, like Ali's age and younger got small crampons that just went in the middle of their feet. Connor has big enough feet that he got real crampons, I think the full crampons were easier to walk wtih.

It was amazing to be on the glacier, there were deep crevasses and holes in the ice. There was one place that was like a cave in the ice with a roof over the top, I joked to Ali that maybe Elsa from Frozen made it. As we were walking next to an especially deep crevasse Dan noted that "If you fall in there you aren't coming back." That was so not a good thing to say when our daughter was already scared!! I reminded him that he really needs to keep working on his "filter."

Happy hikers

We were on the ice for about an hour. After we got out of the rope and our crampons it was time to head back to the car. The walk down on the rocks was more challenging than the walk up. The rocks were wet and slippery from the rain! I fell on my butt when I slipped down a big rock! It was lovely and very graceful I'm sure, I have a few bruises from the fall but nothing serious. We were happy to get back to the boat and then the car. We were definitely a sight by the time we made it back, we were soaking wet and Ali and I were filthy from falling! I put my hands down on the ice a few times and they got super dirty. Ali did the same when she slipped and her sweatshirt was filthy!

We were cold and wet!

My silly boys

Just a little dirty!!

All in all it was an awesome adventure and I'm very glad we did it! I would only suggest this trek for people in good shape. It is advertised for kids 6 and up but you definitely have to know your kid. My kids are generally pretty adventurous and brave and Ali had a hard time with the walk. You are close to crevasses and big holes in the ice, you also have to step over some spots that you don't want to fall into.

We met my parents back at the glacier information center and my dad got ice cream for the kids. We decided to skip the museum portion and head back to Balestrand. We were all wet and tired! The drive back didn't go quite as quickly as the morning one. We were all happy to take hot showers when we got back to the hostel. We had dinner at the hostel and the American woman we met the day before joined us for dinner again. I spent time after dinner repacking our stuff because tomorrow we move to Bergen!

 

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